This invention relates to the technical field of injecting one or more implants into the body of a subject. More specifically, but not exclusively, the invention concerns the intramuscular or sub-cutaneous injection of one (or several) solid or semi solid pharmaceutical components which are designated “implant” in what follows. The subject can be a mammal, particularly a human being. This will be designated as “subject” or “patient” in what follows. This implant is injected periodically, for example each month, into the subject's body about 10 mm (millimeters) below the surface of the subject's skin, this implant then dissolving into the subject's body during the month. In accordance with another possible application, the implant is an electronic chip used to identify a living being.
Patent EP 1 323 450 already known in the art teaches a device for injecting tablets of a drug, comprising a hollow needle fixed to a cylinder housing the tablets. The tablets are held in the cylinder before being introduced into the needle and then into the body of the subject. The tablets are maintained in position in the cylinder by flexible fingers which hold the tablets until the operator presses on the device's plunger rod and which then relax to allow the tablets to be introduced into the needle by deflection of the flexible fingers.
A disadvantage of such a device resides in the fact that the deflection of the flexible fingers puts the tablets under stress. The tablets are compressed both by the plunger pressed by the user and by the flexible fingers which exert a certain amount of resistance before giving way. For some implants, exerting stress upon them may be dissatisfactory. Indeed, certain implants are particularly fragile or easy to deform, due to the fact that they contain substances intended to dissolve within the subject's body. The pressure exerted on these implants may therefore damage them. In addition, for a deformable implant, the pressure exerted from above may increase its diameter to such an extent that the implant remains stuck inside the device.